Z1 Games 2025
The Zone One Games 2025
Hi guys, Coach Iona here this weeks blog addition…
Wow, where do I start with this one! Last weekend marked the second edition of our the Zone One Games (our annual in-house fitness competition) and what a weekend it was!
I’ve always taken part in Fitness competitions in some form since I’ve been a personal trainer, from Power Lifting to Functional Fitness, and I have found doing competitions to improve your enjoyment of the gym on so many levels.
Firstly, when you’re working towards a competition you have that driving force in your brain to keep you going when motivation dips.
Secondly, the community aspect of competing - when you meet people through sport and activity there’s just something about the friendship you create that hits on a deeper level. You can have met someone once but feel like you know them so well.
This was something we wanted to emulate when we started Zone One - ensuring our community would have the opportunity to take part and compete in our in-house competitions, meet other members and work hard together, creating a bond/friendship that’s hard to replecate.
Last year was a great success, it was our first one so there was not too many teams, it ran over two hours, and it was almost a bit of a test run to see what was possible for the future.
Fast forward a year, and we had three categories: Women, Men and Mixed, and the event ran from 9:30-15:30.
We wanted the competition to run smoothly and professionally, whilst also being fun and a good vibe from start to finish. I think we smashed that… but I am maybe biased.
The day started with the Women’s teams - teams arrived for 8:30 for the Athlete Briefing, and the first heat was off at 9:00. Our wonderful team of judges were ready and raring to go - Saz even had her clipboard in hand.
First heat set off and I couldn’t believe how much they were pushing it - with teams managing the Echo Bike calorie target in 90-120 seconds (30 Cals for Women, 40 Cals for Men). We could see from the outside they were entering the pain cave.
There was more ‘near spews’ after that Engine piece across the day than I think anyone cares to admit but it was incredible to see all the teams working at one hundred percent and giving their all. I think for a lot of people it maybe showed they were capable of faster paces than they ever realised.
After our teams had completed both Engine + Bodyfit the floor was cleared and we made space for our last event -Strength. What a BUZZ to see all our teams working up the weights and achieving new personal bests. There were more PBs on Saturday than I have time to write down - but just know that everyone competing did incredibly.
Keep an eye our Instagram if you want to see more - https://www.instagram.com/zone.glasgow/
We finished the day with our podiums:
1st: Zoned Out
2nd: 48 Hours Notice
3rd: Flarey Godmothers
We are super proud of all the teams, everyone absolutely smashed it.
We were so lucky to have Eusebi’s donate food for us for our midday break - they provided sandwiches, pasta pots and the best baked goods which fuelled the morning team post workout and gave the afternoon team a good pre workout.
After the break, we were back with the Mixed and Mens teams. They’d had some pre-warning from the morning team on what to expect, which possibly helped but who can say. Again, watching the teams battle it out and push their limits was incredible and inspiring and all the coaches were so proud.
Side Note: I’ve now got my eye on Arshad any time he’s on that Echo Bike - I saw him hit paces on Saturday that he’s NEVER hit before so there’s no hiding now!
While myself and our Head Judge (Kirsten) were working out the placements for the Mixed we realised we had an unanticipated tie on our hands…but we hadn’t prepared a tie-breaker.
Fast forward about 5 minutes and we had a new sprint style tie-break workout written up. It was up to Habs + Rhys and Jonny + Emily to battle it out to see who would take the crown. The workout was 3 RFT (rounds for time): 20 wall balls + 20 burpees to plate. You could split the workout up however you wanted and the first team to finish would reign victorious!
In the end, Habs and Rhys managed to take the W, which left our mixed podium as…
1st: Snatch Me Daddy
2nd: Wyldecat + J-Dawg
3rd: One Good Knee Between Us
And our mens podium:
1st Place: Reilly Good Team Name
2nd: Gym and Tonic
Despite everyone being absolutely exhausted having given it their all across three workouts, it was amazing to see how many people joined us in the evening for our unofficial afterparty. We had all the team back in Zone for Pizza, Drinks and Karaoke (thanks, Lynnie).
The night followed on in similar style from the competition itself, a raving success. Highlights include Kayley, Eabha and Hannah singing with no music and unplugged microphones followed soon after by Jonny and Will’s rendition of The Gambler to round off the evening before we headed round the corner to the Arlington. Everything get’s a bit blurry from there…but know we all had the best time and it was well worth the sore heads the following morning.
I think I can speak for everyone when I say we can’t wait for next years games already - we have a lot to live up to!